1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle body front structure in which shock absorbing members project from front end portions of front side frames toward the front of a vehicle body and a bumper beam is coupled to the front end portions of the shock absorbing members.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some of the vehicle body front structures are structured such that shock absorbing members project from front end portions of front side frames to the front of a vehicle body, a bumper beam is spanned between the shock absorbing members on both sides, and gussets (referred to as “load transfer members” hereafter) diagonally extend from the bumper beam to outer side walls of the front side frames (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-113894).
With the vehicle body front structure according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-113894, when a shock load is input to the bumper beam due to a small overlap crash at high speed, shock energy can be absorbed by axially collapsing the shock absorbing members toward the rear of a vehicle with the shock load at an initial stage of the crash. Furthermore, the shock load is transferred from the load transfer members to the front side frames, and the front side frames are bent toward a power unit side by the shock load. Thus, the shock energy can be absorbed.
In the case of a minor crash at the front of the vehicle, it is required that shock energy be absorbed only by axial collapsing the shock absorbing members while suppressing deformation of the front side frames. However, with the vehicle body front structure according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-113894, when the shock absorbing members are axially collapsed toward the rear of the vehicle body due to a minor crash, a shock load is transferred from the load transfer members to the front side frames, and lateral loads act on the front side frames. Thus, there is a possibility of the front side frames being bent (deformed) and, from this viewpoint, there is still room for improvement.